Pennsylvania: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has said that Republican rival John McCain would be better for the country than President George W Bush has been over the past eight years.

"You have a real choice in this election. Either Democrat would be better than John McCain," Obama said to cheers from a rowdy crowd in central Pennsylvania. Then he said: "And all three of us would be better than George Bush.

"But what you have to ask yourself is who has the chance to actually really change things in a fundamental way so that 10 years from now or 20 years from now you can look back and you can say boy we really moved in a new direction and we put the country on a better path," Obama added as he wrapped up an event at Reading High School.

Obama was trying to argue that he is the better choice over Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton in primary in Pennsylvania. But the Illinois senator ended up mixing in praise for McCain at the same time.

The comment threatened to undercut Obama's efforts -- and those of the entire Democratic Party -- to portray the Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting as nothing more than an extension of Bush's unpopular tenure. At the very least, it provides fodder Republicans can use to prop up McCain.

Earlier, Obama renewed his criticism that McCain offers the same "failed" policies of the Bush administration on everything from Iraq to the economy.

"We cannot afford a third George Bush term and that's what John McCain is offering -- a third Bush term," Obama said, repeating a line he's said at virtually every campaign stop since McCain wrapped up the Republican nomination last month.
Source : PTI